Figuring out how I wanted to have the entire page designed was more difficult, and was always the point where I asked myself, "Is this right? Do I like this?". What made it challenging was that StoryMaps would insert a map or text segments in a single column; it did not allow for elements to be placed side-by-side. I struggled with figuring out how I wanted the page to be laid out, inspiring me to look to other projects for reference.
The best model I found was published by the Michigan History Center in 2024. It differed from Dark Waters because it had maps built using ArcGIS StoryMaps rather than just StoryMaps, but the design philosophies were the same. I took detailed notes on how they organized their page, divided space, and made room for each content segment to stand on its own while also being balanced by map segments. Throughout development of Dark Waters, I would find myself frequently going back and asking myself new questions such as "How did the MHC arrange their content?" or "What can I do to improve on the design they used?" That last question became more prominent as Dark Waters gained steam and grew in size.
I wanted there to be as little interpretive text outside of maps as possible. The point was to get audiences engaged with the mapping tools, not lecture them. I wanted especially to avoid the classic museum pitfall of putting too much text and too little interactive substance. The image to the right is all the introductory text I drafted to outline the goal, theme, and instructions. With minimal text, audiences are encouraged to dive in (pun intended) to the content as quickly as possible.
To break up large media segments, I used brief amounts of text. This meant audiences weren't constantly barraged by things to do themselves; it provided breathing space. The text also helped to explain some of the media, giving vital context about why certain information was presented the way it was.
Because much of maritime history revolves around the use of statistics (# of shipwrecks, storms, lake dimensions, etc.) to emphasize the importance of qualitative information, I wanted to find a way that could synthetize large amounts of data into a visually appealing format while still being easy to understand. When it came to choosing which set of data to display, our team and I agreed that for most audiences, what would be most in-theme for Dark Waters would be displays of how many ships have been lost and how many have been found in each lake.
Before we could visualize this information, however, we had to conduct more research to determine ballpark estimates of known shipwrecks. There is no single source that compiles a complete accounting of all known wrecks in the Lakes, so information was drawn from sources such as the Michigan Historical Center, the Minnesota Historical Society, the Ohio History Connection, Nature Canada, NASA, and NOAA. No one knows exactly how many ships have been lost, with estimates in each lake ranging from a few hundred to several thousand. We took the numbers which appeared most frequently and which were most realistic to create a bar graph depicting the information in 2 formats:
All numbers involved are estimates, which we made sure to emphasize both in the graph labels and interpretive text. We also used the opportunity to emphasize how new discoveries are being made as time goes on, which will hopefully inspire further audience engagement with various maritime history resources.